1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to merchandising display strips and other related merchandising assemblies and, more particularly, to a reinforced strip display assembly particularly suited for use with an existing shelving construction which is capable of supporting high volumes of smaller impulse merchandise.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Merchandising strip devices are well known in the art for use with existing commercial shelving constructions, the purpose of such devices being to support volumes of small, high-volume merchandise that are in addition to that which is capable of being carried by the conventional shelving. Such strip devices are particularly well suited for sales of impulse and point-of-purchase items which have become a staple of all commercial retail institutions.
Among the many strip merchandising devices which are known include U.S. Pat. No. 5,386,916, issued to Valiulis which teaches an adjustable strip merchandiser consisting of an elongated plastic strip which is holed at an upper end thereof so that the strip may be vertically suspended from an existing shelving unit and a plurality of individual sections which are divided by transversely extending score lines and which permit sections of the strip to be folded and reattached to the suspending member. Merchandising support is provided by pluralities of individual and axially spaced suspension hooks which face upwardly and which are sandwiched between downwardly facing and outer stabilizing fingers. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,718,627, issued to Fast, and 5,553,721, issued to Gebka, teach substantially identical variations of the clip strip arrangement of Valiulis.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,284,259, issued to Conway et al., also teaches a similar merchandising strip construction as shown in Valiulis which is provided in a generally integral one-piece fashion and which is capable of supporting merchandise on both sides of the strip. U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,392, issued to Fast, teaches a still further variation of a strip merchandiser with reinforcing section in the form of a perimeter encircling band which enables more than one individual piece of merchandise to be supported by a central and upwardly extending tongue cut-out portion of the strip.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,012, issued to Simmons, teaches a strip hanger specifically useful for supporting bags of potato chips and other snack products and which includes an elongate base upon one side of which is formed in longitudinally extending fashion a plurality of individual lever portions. The lever portions are each provided by elongate members which are arranged at spaced apart distances from the base by a central pivot or fulcrum point. Pressing on a rear side of the lever causes a corresponding front side to pivot outwardly and an inwardly flanged portion to unseat from an associated groove defined within the face of the body. When released, the inwardly flanged portion pinches an edge of a foil bag or like merchandising article to suspend it from the strip.
While the clip-strip type of merchandising display devices as discussed above provide convenient display of certain types of merchandising, they suffer from the distinct shortcoming that they are all constructed of relatively thin, relatively flimsy elongated bodies. As such, the individual tongue engaging portions located along the various strips are capable of holding at the most one or two pieces of a type of merchandising which in combination fairly limits both the volume and type of items which may be supported. Also, care must be taken to not attempt to stock more than one type of merchandising item on one or both sides of a prior art clip-strip display, since to do so would result in undesirable deflection along an axial direction of the strip which is suspended from the conventional shelving construction.